Father's Office

A preview of coming attractions:

Those who have never been to Father’s Office in Santa Monica have heard the legends: it is tiny, tiny, tiny; the employees have serious attitude; and most importantly it has the best burger in the region if the not the entire United States.

Tiny? I wonder if the naysayers who make this claim have actually been to a tiny restaurant (Vietnamese Soy Café comes to mind). I was expecting the place to be of Lilliputian proportions and was worried that half of our party of 13 would not be seated even though we were first in line. I would say that Father’s Office is tiny by dim sum palace standards but it seats about 50 people easily.

Missing was the purported Father’s Office attitude; my bartender was so nice and helped me pick a great beer to go with my burger: Racer Five IPA (I normally don’t like IPAs but this was really good and went great with the burger) brewed by Bear Republic Brewery up in Sonoma County. The owner, Sang Yoon, is diligent about serving artisanal beers that compliment his gourmet burger. While my glass cost about $2.75 he has beers available that I believe are several hundred dollars per bottle. Just be careful about which beers you order Dear Reader.



But the legend of the phenomenal burger is indeed fact - it is quite delicious. The meat is of obvious high quality and I believe it is a mixture of ground sirloin and chuck. The carmelized onions, Maytag Blue, arugula, and toasted French roll just highlight the wonderful beef, and all of the components work really well together. Six conversations about one thing:



The rest of the items that we tried were extremely good. The sweet potato fries are absolutely incredible (I don’t even like sweet potato fries.) These are a must to order with the burger - don’t be tempted to order the regular fries like I was as they are not so great. My favorite item that day was the spiced olives. I was just blown away but the complex Moroccan spices that enveloped the olives. I definitely want to go back to Father’s Office to get non-burger items (the goat cheese gratin and the white anchovies are calling me, “Bon V, come to me…”); if the kitchen can put out olives that are to die for, imagine what the other items must taste like.





I do have a few criticisms though. While most people in our party complained of their burger being undercooked, my burger was overcooked. It was still tasty and juicy but I think that it would have been better (for me, at least) if it were a little less well done. The burger was supposed to have Gruyere cheese on it but it seemed to be absent from my particular burger. And the main problem for me, and this might sound silly to some (or even most) but even though the burger is truly excellent it seems more like a steak sandwich than a burger.

Father’s Office
1018 Montana Avenue
Santa Monica, CA 90403
http://www.fathersoffice.com/

Rick's Drive-in Featuring "The Spuderito"

For the last 10 years, on and off, I've worked in Pasadena. On many occasions I've driven by the intersection of Walnut and El Molino and noted to self to one day eat at the very popular burger place on the southeast corner. Well, I never got there and the note to self faded into the netherworld.

But one day I read that Rick's Drive-in was closing. Mon Dieu! That's the burger place that I always wanted to go to in Pasadena. As it happened, My Doppelganger and I were starting a Great Burger Challenge series and we made the decision to get to Rick's tres vites before it closed.

Is it fair to compare a Rick's Drive-in burger to one from Father's Office? Perhaps not. I realized after eating at Rick's and speaking with my fellow foodies that there is definitely a burger hierarchy in Los Angeles: you have your fast food/drive thru burgers (Tommy's, In N Out, Rick's, etc.); your well known restaurant burgers (Dish, Pete's, Village Idiot, etc.); and then your "elite" burgers (Father's Office, 25 Degrees, Lucky Devils, etc.). Is a burger that's not made with kobe style beef and served with a posh cheese and chipotle aioli worthy of a foodie's accolades? Even though the elite burger might always win out, due to the quality of ingredients and level of skill that goes into the preparation, I think that a fast food burger could easily have a place on a top ten list.

Check out Mr. Taste of Thai's thoughts on his double cheeseburger:

Actually, off camera he admitted that he thought that a Rick's Drive-in burger was better than In N Out. I have to agree: I thought that the burger was really tasty.

LAgourmet ordered one of the special french bread burgers and was quite disappointed:

The big hit, with me at least, was "The Spuderito." While we were standing in line, and then waiting for our burgers, nearly everyone who went to Rick's said, "What's a Spuderito?" Here, find out:

See my passionate reaction to "The Spuderito":

One of the other retro items that we ordered was the Taco on a Bun. It was essentially an americanized taco (seasoned meat, lettuce, tomato, and cheese) on a burger bun with mustard. Check it out:

Pursuant to MaxMillion's request, I've mixed it up a bit. My homage to French New Wave Cinema:

As an added bonus, here is a photo of my Crema di Limone gelato from Bulgarini Gelato Artigianale in Alta Dena. One spoonful of this stuff and I was transported to my favorite sea side resort in Sicilia.

Rick's Drive-in
680 E. Walnut Street
Pasadena, CA 91101

Bulgarini Gelato Artigianale
749 E. Altadena Drive
Altadena, CA 91001

www.bulgarinigelato.com

Sean's Burgers, Yuca's Hut, and Burrito King - the Great Silver Lake/F'iz Burger Crawl

A preview of coming attractions:

On top: the Double Chili Cheeseburger from Sean's Burgers.

Middle: the Double Chili Cheeseburger from Yuca's Hut.

Bottom: the Double Cheeseburger from Burrito King.

I've been tempted to do a Silver Lake/F'iz (Los Feliz) burger crawl since reading two recent threads on the chowhound LA board. In the first one, lil mikey tells us of his burger adventures at Sean's Burgers (the new place that is now in the old Jay's Jayburger stand), and in the second, Burger Boy ponders the merits of a burger from Yuca's Hut and waxes nostalgic for the burger from Burrito King.

Sean's Burgers:

When I said "charcoal" flavor what I meant to say was "grilled" flavor (sorry, my mind must still be on charcoal Korean bubbaque). Speaking of grilled flavor, my next stop was at Yuca's:

Burger Boy mentioned that there was too much mustard on the burger. I have to admit I took my few bites from the perimeter of the burger and didn't taste any mustard; however, when I got the burgers home and dissected this burger, there was a huge splat of mustard right in the middle of Yuca's burger.

Burrito King:

I think that the best overall tasting burger was from Sean's but if I had ordered the burger from Yuca's without chili I think that one would have been best. The meat was of higher quality and it was really charred giving it a wonderful flavor.

While dissecting the burgers I couldn't help but notice how well Burrito King's burger held up: the lettuce on the other two burgers had already wilted but Burrito King's lettuce was still really crisp. If one just subbed Yuca's patties into the Burrito King bun and accoutrements, it would be a fabulous burger.

Sean's Burgers
4481 Santa Monica Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90029

Yuca's Hut
2056 N. Hillhurst Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90027

Burrito King
2827 Hyperion Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90027